Let's Talk Development - A blog hosted by the World Bank's Chief Economisthttps://blogs.worldbank.org/developmenttalk/
enInformation as intervention: A visit to Digital Green https://blogs.worldbank.org/developmenttalk/information-intervention-visit-digital-green
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The tiny village of Narma Dih, off-grid in Bihar, India, was lit only by the full moon and the beam of a battery-powered <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Handheld_projector" rel="nofollow">pico projector</a>. A makeshift screen hung on the outside wall of a modest dwelling. A clump of small children clung to each other and stared at the screen, transfixed. Behind them sat a circle of sari-clad women, equally absorbed. A few men stood in back. The object of their rapt attention? Not a Bollywood extravaganza, but a locally produced <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYOwBrbufeo" rel="nofollow">how-to video</a> on seed preparation for okra cultivation. </p>
<figure class="image" style="float:left"><img alt="" height="312" src="https://blogs.worldbank.org/developmenttalk/files/developmenttalk/chomitz_digital_green_01.jpg" title="" width="246" /><figcaption><em>Farmer displays a Digital Green<br />
– informed innovation</em></figcaption></figure><p>
I was in Narma Dih to get a first-hand look at <a href="http://www.digitalgreen.org/" rel="nofollow">Digital Green</a>, which uses technology to accelerate the diffusion of agricultural innovations. The <a href="http://econ.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/EXTDEC/EXTRESEARCH/EXTWDRS/EXTNWDR2013/0,,contentMDK:23615285~pagePK:8258258~piPK:8258412~theSitePK:8258025,00.html" rel="nofollow">WDR 2016</a> is all about storing and sharing information, and that is at the heart of agricultural extension. There can be high returns to putting the right information in the right hands at the right time. This is especially true if you can show farmers ways of being more productive with their existing resources -- for instance, showing them how to intercrop, or to make better compost. But credibly transmitting this kind of information has always been difficult, labor-intensive and costly. Agricultural extension agents are typically assigned to serve an impossibly large number of farmers spread over a logistically daunting stretch of countryside. And the traditional form of information transmittal leaves something to be desired. In Bihar, the agents have travelled the back roads shlepping flipcharts, text-heavy and just plain <em>heavy</em>, one per topic. The flipcharts may not adequately convey new techniques to illiterate farmers, let alone give them confidence to try a risky new idea. Would you believe someone who told you that you could sow 90% fewer seeds while boosting your yield? (That's the promise of the system of crop intensification, whose diffusion is a goal of the Bank-supported Jeevika Project.)<br />
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</div></div></div>Tue, 03 Mar 2015 14:00:00 +0000Ken Chomitz1284 at https://blogs.worldbank.org/developmenttalkInclusive growth for shared prosperityhttps://blogs.worldbank.org/developmenttalk/inclusive-growth-shared-prosperity
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Announced in April 2013, the twin global goals of the World Bank – eliminating extreme poverty by 2030 and boosting shared prosperity – have become the guiding principles of its development work. While reducing poverty has always anchored the Bank’s work, the goal of boosting shared prosperity – measured by the income of the bottom 40 percent – is new.<br /><br /></div></div></div>Mon, 02 Mar 2015 14:00:00 +0000Vinaya Swaroop1289 at https://blogs.worldbank.org/developmenttalkFriday Round up: Financial Services for the Poor, India’s Budget, Worldwide Nutrition, HIV/AIDS and Behavior, Basu to deliver Amartya Sen lecturehttps://blogs.worldbank.org/developmenttalk/friday-round-financial-services-poor-india-s-budget-worldwide-nutrition-hivaids-and-behavior-basu
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Microcredit has been both praised and criticized as a development tool. In a <a href="https://www.povertyactionlab.org/about-j-pal/events/microcredit-2015" rel="nofollow">Financial Services for the Poor</a> conference hosted by CGAP, IPA, J-PAL, and the World Bank, researchers, practitioners, and thought leaders examine and discuss the lessons and implications of the latest research on microcredit.</div></div></div>Fri, 27 Feb 2015 20:24:00 +0000LTD Editors1294 at https://blogs.worldbank.org/developmenttalk​Are mega-trade agreements a threat to Brazil?https://blogs.worldbank.org/developmenttalk/are-mega-trade-agreements-threat-brazil
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">The landscape of international trade negotiations has been undergoing an upheaval. On the multilateral level, after 15 years of unsuccessful attempts to close the Doha Development Round at the World Trade Organization (WTO), the negotiation system has shown to be highly vulnerable to blockades by any small group of member countries. The complex web of diverse individual country objectives, cutting across several interrelated themes, made reaching a deal harder than originally expected.</div></div></div>Thu, 26 Feb 2015 15:30:00 +0000Otaviano Canuto1291 at https://blogs.worldbank.org/developmenttalkHow much is the second generation biofuels technology worth to society?https://blogs.worldbank.org/developmenttalk/how-much-second-generation-biofuels-technology-worth-society
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Second generation (2G) liquid biofuels are seen as a promising future technology for meeting global energy demand in the transportation sector, which is currently dominated by fuels derived from crude oil. Life cycle analyses demonstrate that 2G biofuels offset considerably more carbon emissions than corn based ethanol, and environmental advocates see them as a way of reducing the global carbon footprint, especially in the aviation sector, where low carbon alternatives to biofuels do not yet exist.</div></div></div>Wed, 25 Feb 2015 14:00:00 +0000Jevgenijs Steinbuks1286 at https://blogs.worldbank.org/developmenttalkExperiencing development: fast cars and fast cashhttps://blogs.worldbank.org/developmenttalk/experiencing-development-fast-cars-and-fast-cash
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">In a new paper published in the World Bank Working Paper Series: “Debiasing <em>on a Roll: </em>Changing Gambling Behavior through Experiential Learning” (<a href="http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2015/02/23990597/debiasing-roll-changing-gambling-behavior-through-experiential-learning" rel="nofollow">WPS #7195</a>, February 2015), my co-authors and I study how we can start using insights from the biology of the human mind to better understand and facilitate learning of key development concepts especially among illiterate populations in poor countries.<br /><br /></div></div></div>Tue, 24 Feb 2015 14:00:00 +0000Bilal Zia1287 at https://blogs.worldbank.org/developmenttalkMaking the case for case studies in development practicehttps://blogs.worldbank.org/developmenttalk/making-case-case-studies-development-practice
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">The frequency and sophistication with which case studies are deployed by social scientists has greatly expanded in recent years. The goal now is not merely to document or describe, but to diagnose, explain, interpret, and inform a basis for action. Professional schools across the disciplines – from medicine and engineering to business and public policy – now routinely use ‘the case method’ not only to teach but to generate practical knowledge.<br />
</div></div></div>Mon, 23 Feb 2015 14:00:00 +0000Michael Woolcock1282 at https://blogs.worldbank.org/developmenttalkFriday Round up: Development economics on Freakonomics, a new lecture by Kaushik Basu, Research Digest, and the clout of migrantshttps://blogs.worldbank.org/developmenttalk/friday-round-development-economics-freakonomics-new-lecture-kaushik-basu-research-digest-and-clout
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Freakonomics Radio has a one-on-one <a href="http://freakonomics.com/2015/02/19/hacking-the-world-bank-a-new-freakonomics-radio-podcast/" rel="nofollow">interview with President Jim Yong Kim</a> on his role at the World Bank, and the latest World Development Report on ‘Mind, Society and Behavior.’<br />
<br /></div></div></div>Fri, 20 Feb 2015 20:29:00 +0000LTD Editors1290 at https://blogs.worldbank.org/developmenttalkGeographical poverty traps in rural areas: A growing global problemhttps://blogs.worldbank.org/developmenttalk/geographical-poverty-traps-rural-areas-growing-global-problem
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">More than one-third of the rural population in developing countries lives on less-favored agricultural land, according to global spatial datasets from 2000. How, then, does this distribution influence the incidence of poverty in these countries? <br /><br /></div></div></div>Fri, 20 Feb 2015 14:00:00 +0000Edward B. Barbier1283 at https://blogs.worldbank.org/developmenttalk​Growing up: graduation from low-income to middle-income statushttps://blogs.worldbank.org/developmenttalk/growing-graduation-low-income-middle-income-status
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><em>The number of low-income countries has dropped by nearly half since 2001, following the graduation of mainly mineral exporting and transition economies in Sub-Saharan Africa and Europe and Central Asia to middle-income status.</em><br /><br /></div></div></div>Thu, 19 Feb 2015 14:00:00 +0000Tehmina S. Khan1280 at https://blogs.worldbank.org/developmenttalk